Wait I was gonna put together a list of some stuff for audio and animation
Lemme get right on that here we go suckaz gonna get so much onto this
And I’m gonna intersperse it with stuff I’ve done/like

By converting the audio to video, you lose elements of the sound (intimacy, and highlighting elements with imagery causes other aspects to change) – however this process also acts as a “bridge” for the extra information from the video to hopefully fill in those gaps with frog DNA. The “job” of most pieces of traditional video is to create a harmonious link between audio and visual components to create an experience for the viewer.

Okay so! Toolkit for creating short animations — creative commons music, sound effects and images. These are basically ideal unless you can create your own stuff. Can’t write? There are also creative commons scripts! (There are probably other sites out there for this stuff, these are just example links). Of course all this creative commons business is if you want to show this stuff off to a larger audience, to a degree you could probably get away with using licensed stuff for smaller projects but then you wouldn’t own the property so you have less rights to it (unless you can claim fair use etc, but, that’s a whole other thing).

YouTube is a pretty good resource for help creating your own music and sound effects (foley ideas etc – also google) but writing can be a little more difficult. Pretty much with all this stuff you have to practice as well as researching the material: Oh look here is a thing someone linked at me once!

Zombies! The living dead. We all get hungry sometimes, but zombies? They go the extra mile. You might’ve (in our privileged society) gone for like a while without eating lately, and maybe you wanted a snack or something, but these dudes are always up on that hunger creep, and they just do not let up for that tasty treat of the flesh of mortal man (or woman, or transgendered folk but I haven’t seen that explored in a zombie movie yet so maybe they’re off the hook) – and even death itself can not put down their insatiable craving for our brains.

With modern technology, the incessant desire to vicariously overcome our fear of homogeneity, mortality and futile incompetence in the face of an enormous, uncaring, seemingly unchangeable reality can be indulged in an ever-increasing spiral of books, tv shows, comics, movies and now videogames, and since I too desire to escape the sad reality that we must all one day die (and enjoy seeing the catharsis of characters dealing with the same struggles, plus see a monster getting its skull burned in by acid) – I sometimes dip my toe into a little puddle of these murky, necrotic waters.

One of the first videogames that I can remember ever fully dealing with zombies was the videogame Resident Evil (or Biohazard), which one of my friends used to have as a pirate copy for the PlayStation back when I was a kid. Because piracy was far less developed back then than it is now, the disc took about 20 minutes to fire up, all the while a strangely un-nerving eye staring out at the viewer, daring you to press start or X or whatever it was that you’d already pressed five minutes ago and were now hearing the machine desperately strain to read the disc. The game itself was more or less a continuation on the sieged-by-zombies theme of Night of the Living Dead, at the beginning, while also going into a sort of gothic haunted house, mysterious crazy things going on nightmare as the game continued, with enormous, bizarre, freakish monsters as the game strived to explain beyond all measure with insane genetic conspiracy the reason as to why there were some big, vicious dogs outside a house.

So, strictly speaking, Resident Evil has never really been a full-on, straightforward humans vs. zombies game, with the zombies almost a side product to the main story of this genetic conspiracy that has created them, indeed the fourth and fifth entries in the franchise focus more on the exploitation of a brutal parasite that allows for smarter, stronger pseudo-zombies (they’re kind of like a rage virus zombie but with mutating limbs and body parts).

All this is ultimately to tell you that I love the newer Resident Evil games (although they can be pretty flawed with their attitudes to gender and, a -bit- weird with race) – Resident Evil 4 is essentially perfect as a videogame, Resident Evil 5 is fantastically committed to exploring its B-movie sci-fi roots, right down to its deliciously insane ending, and Resident Evil 6 is what I’m playing lately. Resident Evil 6 is a tremendously ambitious game, not only because its four complete campaigns all seek to tell roughly the same series of events through different gameplay-styles and different protagonists (each with their own proficiencies, like in a fighting game) – but for the amount of different stories that each campaign is able to wring from those events, and how they interlock and form a complete whole. Plus, giant monsters.

I’m mostly counting this as a zombie game because of the zombies that appear in Leon’s campaign, which is victim to a few major problems as it tries to force in a romance story that doesn’t really work at all, since Leon refuses to even passingly mention an important event with regards to that character that is discovered almost immediately prior to meeting her, and various other inconsistencies in the treatment of her are literally hand-waved in the ending as “huh, women, am I right?” — this is just an incredibly poor execution that could have been saved with a few small scenes or even a brief conversation, but is missing from the campaign seemingly only so that the mystery could be prolonged further, which ultimately denies the interactions of any emotional weight (a problem that occurs with another character in Leon’s campaign).

Chris and Jake’s campaigns also deal to some degree with mysteries that are kept from the player, but they work much more effectively, perhaps because they are in fact legitimate mysteries to the characters, and not just arbitrarily withheld information. The monster designs are incredible, with some genuinely frightening and others wonderful homages to B-movie sensibilities, the gameplay is great and varied (especially Chris’ campaign) and the story unfurls very well, with lots to enjoy and an improved inventory system from RE5.

If you don’t like insane, nonsensical action movies with giant monsters and slightly hammy characters (strangely toned down a notch from Resident Evil 5 – CHRIIIIIIIIS!!!!) then you could easily give it a miss, but I think it really tries to do something different and the scale is amazing. I’m actually not done playing it all the way through yet so I’ll post more as I get through it (I’m currently working through smart-mouthed badass Jake’s campaign, although his cool is somewhat diminished by the amount of times he falls off things or dies when I’m playing as him).

The other game I’ve been playing lately is Project Zomboid, by The Indie Stone, available on Desura for £4.99. It’s an isometric zombie survival game with no real plot as of yet (it’s still in alpha) – with the player taking on the role of a sole survivor struggling to find food, shelter and weapons to face the unending horde that threatens to overwhelm you at any time. It’s really impressive and there’s a ton of stuff to do, from finding a hammer, nails and plank to build barricades, a trowel, seeds and watering can to grow crops, or just a shotgun and a baseball bat to go zombie-hunting (with the shotgun obviously attracting way more zombies, but capable of bringing down lots at a time) it’s strangely rewarding to play, with each character you create being essentially lost forever when they die thanks to the game’s auto-saving, but it doesn’t quite feel frustrating as your death is almost always your own fault (usually in my case due to hubris in the face of taking on two zombies with an almost-broken golf club).

Before that I was re-playing through Telltale’s The Walking Dead but you already know how good that is (and now I’m re-reading the compendiums, but you already know how good they are). Bye!

Okay, so, after that last post, some things have changed! First of all Misfits ended, I thought it was a pretty good season. At the moment my new TV show to watch is Utopia, which is also a Channel 4 production and also has the guy who plays Curtis on Misfits. It’s kind of about conspiracies and it’s shot really well, sometimes it can seem a little infantile in its exuberance but mostly it’s really strong and the score is incredible.

I also finished reading Angel: After the Fall -and- Spike: After the Fall, so now I can fully recommend both of those as being excellent, Spike: After the Fall in particular helped make things in Angel: AtF make a lot more sense for the characters, so I’d probably say you should definitely pick them both up. I got Spike: AtF in hardcover and it’s nice and high quality, very pretty. I’m also 3/4 of the way through Buffy: Season 8 now with the release of the third Library Edition oversized hardcover! It’s definitely going on a huge scale which I love but still keeping an intimate feel between characters, basically it’s really great. Some of it felt a little weird but I’m looking forward to re-reading them all in sequence again when volume 4 comes out in April/May.

Oh, I bought the first Compendium for The Walking Dead comic and that is really great too, again as with Utopia sometimes it can feel a little infantile with how “extreme” it gets but generally it’s pretty good. You definitely get involved in the story and feel the light and darkness in Rick’s development as things continue. Looking forward to finding out more in the second Compendium once I get that (also, they’re like 1100 pages each! It is insane).

I’m currently trying to find more ways to collaborate in creating art so I’ve got a few projects going on that front. Alright, well, there we go internet, that’s all I’ve got for now.

Oh, this also counts as an update! I finished reading Angel: After the Fall and Spike: After the Fall, and they are both pretty great. I can’t say I enjoyed them -as much- as I am enjoying the Buffy comics, but they were both solid self-contained stories and I really liked how they both turned out.

Reading Spike: After the Fall second was probably a good idea even though it takes place first chronologically, because it spoils a few things for Angel: After the Fall, but it does make a few things that happen later in Angel: AtF make a little more sense for the characters and gives a few actions more thematic weight (in my opinion) so, definitely worth picking up both if you’re interested.

Next, Adam Buxton is back on the radio but this time with Edith Bowman and the episodes are available on iTunes as a podcast (Adam and Edith) which is fantastic, definitely losing none of the charm of the Adam & Joe episodes but obviously it’s a different kind of magic.

The Walking Dead videogame was brilliant too, I’m not sure how well it would hold up on multiple play-throughs as that might highlight how little individual choices matter to the way the storyline actually turns out (same deal with Heavy Rain), but as with Heavy Rain, I’d like to come back and play through it again in a few months after I’ve forgotten everything.

Finally, this last season of Misfits started off a little shaky but now seems to be finding its feet and doing a pretty great job of reinvigorating the series with a new group of characters, which I think was a smart way to go, and they all seem pretty interesting. Mind you, I love weird superpowers so it’s always just a fun show for me to see what they do with them.

I will tell you what is in the Angel: After the Fall Slipcase edition. Basically it is just the four trade paperbacks and a cool orange relatively hard slipcase with designs of the characters on it. I haven’t finished reading it yet, but basically just the first four trades (the series collectively named After The Fall) are canon in terms of fitting in with Buffy Season 8 and 9, after that there is the pretty much canon Spike: After the Fall (some stuff is referenced lightly in Angel: After the Fall, which is enough to make it canon for me, plus it’s based on discussion about what Spike was up to with Joss) and the official cannon Spike: The Complete Series.

After that you can pretty much just think of the other Angel comics as a continuation of the story in a direction that could be cool. I kinda really like the Buffy series though so I’m pretty much just sticking with what ties in with that for canon (plus it saves on book costs), but if you want to read more (potentially) kickass stories set in the same world, with that continuing story and characters, well, that’s kind of the spirit of what the whole Buffy/Angel comic series is about, so, knock yourself out. Oh wait I just realized this is the internet I have to come down on one side or the other on this: NEVER READ ANYTHING EXCEPT ISSUES ONE, FIVE, TEN, ELEVEN, EIGHTEEN, THIRTY ONE of ANGEL and then read SPIKE: AFTER THE FALL (but only the back half) then start at Willow Wonderland and work backwards in time, including rewinding vhs cassette tapes of Buffy and Angel episodes, this is now the only way I will allow you to enjoy the Buffyverse.

Will this madness ever be stopped? Presumably! I’m a lot happier with this one! Took about two and a half hours to film and edit, the writing and audio work was done beforehand so I’m not exactly sure how long that took.

Good gravy this show is hilarious. Definitely check this thing out immediately. Any of the latest set of episodes are worth listening to. Andy Daly is always great at characters, as is James Adomian and Paul F Tompkins if you need a place to start.

This is just part of getting the look together for a new MSPA forum adventures thing I’m working on! Hopefully it’ll mean I make a few more videos in the future, so look forward to maybe hearing about those when I remember to post them on here. Oh! I also did some volunteer work recently which was quite good for this tour thing, they had paintings, performance art and audio stuff that was great. Plus a short film segment. Interesting stuff!

Anyway, on to the video, that first one was done in a few hours and I’m pretty sure I didn’t write anything. The idea was originally due to watching the Renegade intro video and wanting to do something with a similar kind of tone, and also the idea of the outlaw hunting outlaws was interesting to me, as well as just generally that idea of the loose cannon cop. So, originally I’d decided to do kind of a cop show format, with the first episode introducing the character and a murder scene, the identity of the victim being decided by users. But then, reading the thread for the contest, I found a post that had an idea for a story where the main character was a superhero by day, supervillain by night (by equal turns both good and evil, like Taffin) and decided to adapt that.

Afterwards it was just a matter of coming up with powers that I could easily portray on a limited budget, and working out the visual and general aesthetic of the production. I’ve continued working on it, and I’m getting a little closer, but I’m still not quite sure I’m there yet. This is the next video, which is more fully scripted, and took a few more hours to shoot and edit (though still took place over much less than a day).

I’ve been working on the next trailer which promises to be slightly better and a little different in tone, as I’ve been taking notes from people I’ve shown the videos to. That’ll be up soon, hopefully! The project starts properly on Wednesday, August 1st.

And, no videos for a long while because my camera is busted and my computer broke so I lost Flash. I should get to work on re-attaining these things! Mostly I’ve been working towards getting a job and producing the Cthulhu on Parade podcast, which is growing and changing quite nicely!

Here’s a video of a board game I just bought today, also you may be astonished to discover that people that make boardgames are kinda nerds! I will put up a review on this blog after I receive it and play a game, this is my solemn promise to you, the audience.

And speaking of board games, you should really check out the Wil Wheaton online show TableTop! The last episode was really great, and you can watch it here.